Chelsea back to winning ways without the need of Diego Costa

CHELSEA returned to their winning ways with a comfortable 3-0 win against Leicester without the help of Diego Costa. The Blues may have been without their talisman but that didn’t matter as a double from fullback Marcos Alonso and a goal from Pedro secured the win for Chelsea.

Alonso opened the scoring on the 6th minute with a fine finish past Foxes goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.

Alonso then scored Chelsea’s second with a deflected effort shortly after the halftime interval.

Spanish compatriot Pedro wrapped up the win for Chelsea by heading in Willian’s cross.

Before kickoff, rumours were rife over Diego Costa’s Chelsea future as reports claimed he had been offered a move to China. The reports had claimed the move would be around the £60 million mark with Costa netting a staggering £30 million-a-year contract.

Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte, has denied the claims and insisted Costa was unavailable due to a back injury and hadn’t trained during the week.

“On Tuesday, during the training session, Diego stopped because he felt a pain in his back, and from that moment he didn’t train during the week” the Italian stated.

“And for this reason today he wasn’t available for the starting eleven, or for the bench, or to come with the squad. This is the reason. This is the truth about Diego.”

Speaking about the rumoured move, the Chelsea manager said “I don’t know anything about this (interest from China). The club did not tell me about this. For this reason, it can be only speculation.

“We start our training session on Tuesday and next week we will see. It’s important to understand his physical condition and then we will see if he trains with us. I don’t know (how long he will be out) because I don’t have his pain.”

Chelsea currently sit at the top of the Premier League with 52 points, 7 ahead of second place Tottenham who, according to West Bromwich Albion midfielder Darren Fletcher, will be in title contention come May.

“They will be disappointed with the finish to last season and there is no better way to learn from it than to experience it” the Scotsman claims.

“They are in the top four on the back of the Chelsea win and should see themselves as title contenders.

“Even Chelsea would tell you the league isn’t over. Any of the top six could put in a run and go on to win the title.

The league will probably be defined by the games between themselves. The top-six games this season are going to be huge.”